Ticking and Toile in the Dining Room

Hi Friends~

My last couple of posts have been sharing all the changes I made while preparing for a photo shoot with Romantic Homes. I've shared the living room and entry with you and today I'm sharing the dining room.

I used a beautiful toile, that I found recently, in the living room, and since the living room and dining room are essentially the same room, I used it in the dining room too.

I made two new slipcovers for the head and foot of the table. I made these slipcovers more fitted than my previous ones made out of drop cloths and added a gentle ruffle. I'm keeping the old slipcovers to use when my sweet (messy) grandchildren eat over. ;)

I had originally covered the cane-backed dining room chairs with the same drop cloth. But after finding this toile and the coordinating ticking, I decided to recover them with ticking. I added a few layers of batting before adding the fabric to make them more comfortable.

 I got these beautiful delphinium from our local florist ~ Megan at This and That. If you live in the Big Rapids area, be sure to visit her beautiful shop! She special~ordered these and had them waiting for me the day before the shoot. I used to have these growing in my yard but they didn't survive one of our cold Michigan winters. They are one of my favorite flower because of beautiful blues.

I still have not found any bar stools that I love at the price I want to spend. I've painted ours an antique white so that they 'disappear' a little.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture below. It's really hard to get certain angles with all the windows in our house and the glare off the floors.

Kristen had a list of shots that Staci Dumoski, the editor of Romantic Homes, had specifically requested, but she took pictures of everything! Even things I hadn't planned on. I'm sure most of them won't make the magazine but there was no stone left unturned!  You can see her list here on the dining room table.

I'll be back soon with pictures of our family room. I moved our new coffee table that was in the living room to the family room and the industrial cart has a new home in the basement. I did it for the shoot but we all like it so much that I think it's going to stay that way. It really lightened up the room.

Our shower door and claw-foot slipper tub have been delivered. We ordered these from Menards and they shipped within days. A plumber is coming today to see what needs to be done in our master bath for the new tub and vanity. Demo is scheduled for next Wednesday so I am boxing things up and my husband and I are moving to the main floor bathroom. We have another bathroom upstairs but my son uses that, so we'll use the downstairs for a couple of weeks.

As soon as we hear from the plumber, I'll order a vanity. We need to make sure our plumbing comes out of the wall. Our current vanity sits on the floor and the one I'd like has legs.

love and blessings~

"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."

Isaiah 54:11,12

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New Dining Room Chairs

There's something so romantic to me about big solid dining room tables. I always imagine families and friends gathered there for hours, after the children have run off to play, enjoying wine by candlelight and sharing stories and laughter. Our family is in the growing stage; husbands, grandchildren, girl friends, etc. When we're all together for holidays and family dinners, there's twelve of us now.

Our upholstered dining room chairs are one of the few things we purchased new. We bought six of them a few years ago and within no time, we didn't have enough. So when I spotted these six cane-back chairs on Craig's list for $125, I was thrilled. And it doesn't hurt that they are very French Country.

They echo the lines of our china cabinet and even the mirror that I recently put across the room, which I will share soon.

The lovely couple that was selling them live about an hour away and when I showed up at their house, they were so kind. The husband insisted on putting every chair in the back of my vehicle for me and the sweet wife and I shared our faith in Christ.

She told me that the chairs had belonged to her mother and were about sixty years old.  They are so well made and sturdy and were in almost perfect condition. I was so happy that when I brought them home that the height and scale of these chairs worked so well with our existing chairs.

I painted them with chalk paint. I have two paint colors that I mixed several months ago for our furniture. After I mixed them to get the color I want, I took them to Lowe's and had them match them. I add chalk paint additive to them that I purchased through Amazon. It's a lot cheaper this way and means I have chalk paint in whatever color I want, when I want it.

I first put a coat of the darker shade on them and then brushed the lighter shade over that here and there, to get an uneven finish.  Then I lightly sanded them and added a coat of chalk paint wax that I purchased at Lowe's.  I recovered the chair pads in drop cloths, since we have little grandchildren.

I'm using our old dining room chairs at the head and foot of the table and now there's room for all six of the new chairs on the sides. I usually have slipcovers on these chairs but I took them off for these photos. I'm thinking about making some new ones.

I put the rest of our old chairs around the game table in the basement and it's easy to bring up any extras when we need them for big dinners.

My husband built our dining room table a few years ago. To our family, it's a treasure. He signed the bottom and dated it. Someday, I imagine it will be a family heirloom.

I got these two ginger jars at HomeGoods a few weeks ago.

I just never seem to get tired of blue and white.

You may have noticed that the shutters and wood finish seem lighter. They are! And I've got lots more changes coming up! Don't ya just love paint!

love and blessings~

"Behold, I will set your stones in turquoise, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. I will make your summits of rubies and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones."

Isaiah 54:11,12

Sources:

New dining room chairs - second hand

Dining room table - my husband made it

Dining room chairs at head and foot - Ebay

China cabinet - second hand

Blue and white - HomeGoods and HobbyLobby

Large white vase - Joss&Main

French sign - Joss&Main

French demijohn - One Kings Lane

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Our New China Cabinet

I've been thinking about showing you our dining room for a while but the funny thing is that if I had shown it to you last week it would look completely different than it does today!

On Saturday, our local Salvation Army had a rummage sale.  I saw the sale on Facebook and spotted a china cabinet that looked remarkably like what I'd been hoping to find for a while.  The Facebook post said the sale started at 9am and it was 9:20.  I think I "strolled in" about 9:25.  lol

And it was just what I wanted!  For $100!  I didn't even bargain.  After all, the money was all going to the Salvation Army and the china cabinet was perfect!  And in excellent condition.

So after three trips from the church to our house, and moving our old china cabinet to the family room and our grandfather clock to the entry hall and getting the new china cabinet into the house and into the dining room - I have the china cabinet of my dreams!

And it fits perfectly!  If it was an inch wider it would have been too big.  I love that it has three shelves and that I have all this additional storage.  I love the French Country curved top and the beautiful inlay on the doors.

I've recovered my dining room chairs since you saw them last.  I had made slipcovers for the chairs in a white duck and foolishly did not pre-wash the fabric.  When I washed them, they shrunk so much that I couldn't get them back on the chairs!  So I made new slipcovers from drop cloths in an oatmeal color.  This time I pre-washed them and made them a lot looser.

I love our new china cabinet with the dining room table that my husband made.  It's the perfect balance between rustic and elegant.

We are waiting right now to get new windows installed in our dining room, in our living room and in our upstairs master bedroom.  So hopefully, I'll have that to show you soon.  I think it will make a big difference in the appearance of our dining room and living room.

I took these pictures on a cloudy morning hoping I could get better detail.  Essentially one wall of this room is a window and it makes very hard to get good pictures.

Here's the view looking into our kitchen. Our living room is to the left and I will show it to you soon.

Hope you're having a great week!

Love and blessings~

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:38,39

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